Ares Management LLC is an investment firm with about US$59 billion in its portfolio of credit and private equity assets. It is now in the process of preparing for an initial public offering or IPO in the Unites States. The said IPO was first reported on the Financial Times last Thursday, citing banking sources.

With an IPO, Ares would be the latest of many stock floats conducted by alternative asset managers. The first ones were conducted last year with the Carlyle Group LP and the Oaktree Capital Group LLC. This also comes at a time when fellow buyout firms such as Blackstone Group, KKR & Co, Apollo Global Management and Ares have identified the coming period as amongst the strongest performance wise for the stock market.

Since the beginning of 2013, the share values of fund managers have earned higher compared to the general average in the financial sector. This higher valuations comes with the expectation that a buoyant marnet would make work easier in selling assets and providing rich dividends to its shareholders.

According to the Financial Times, the company had been contemplating on undertaking an IPO in the past few years and this Ares IPO could be launched in the next few months.